So...whats for dinner?

deborye

The experience of grief is powerful. So, too, is your ability to help yourself heal. In doing the work of grieving, you are moving toward a renewed sense of meaning and purpose in your life." 
Lord knows, I'm trying.

carolehalston

Tonight's dinner was a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.  The lamb chops we bought at the Farmer's Market were delicious and so were the tiny new potatoes.  The lamb was more per lb than I usually pay at home for American lamb.  It was $14 per lb.  But it was worth the $$.  DH grilled the chops perfectly.  If I had room in the freezer, I would have bought some ground lamb but the freezer is chockablock full.

Lacey12

Welcome Peggy and Liz!



Lovely quote, Deb. Sending caring thoughts to accompany you on this unwanted but important journey.



Carole, did you marinate the lamb? I have been dying to grill lamb chops, but never see them on sale...so pricey!



Came to NH today....

We had sandwiches at the Winnipesaukee Theater tonight before the show. DH had lobster roll, I had a grilled portobella with spinach and red peppers. It was exciting to see the beautiful new playhouse campus (on the former Annalee Dolls' site for anyone who comes to this area of NH) and larger theater. The play was a riot... Noises Off... and the acting superb.....and I'm not even a fan of farce.



Earlier today, I was very happy to find that our house looked exactly the same as we left it last October ....specifically no sign of any wildlife having made it indoors....am always amazed at this, and thankful! Carole, what is the purpose of wrapping your toilets when you leave home?



Luv, I thought of you when my trainer told me about a friend in Maine she was going to visit this weekend who has twelve goats....and several other animals, including pigs, on their property...I call that a farm.

Lacey12

Oops, I forgot!

Carole, here's the recipe I loosely followed for my most recent attempt at white gazpacho. I have yet to try one of the ones that does not call for grapes.



http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/white_gazpacho/

carolehalston

Lacey, the white gazpacho sounds good.  The only "odd" ingredient (for me) is the green grapes.

We saran-wrap the toilets so that we don't have to ask someone to come in about once a month to flush the toilets.  Even with leaving the lids down, the water can evaporate and allow bad odors from the sewer pipes to get into the house.  This according to dh!  Of course, we leave the a/c running at about 82 during the summer. 

Your lake house sounds so nice.

Tonight's dinner will be leftovers.  We still have spaghetti and the rice/pork sausage dish.

Tomorrow we move on to Pine Hollow, just a drive of about an hour and a half. 

eric95us

My parents alsways used to do the same thing when I was a kid.  I was probably 10 or 11, when we got home fro ma summer vacation and mom rushed in..forgetting about the plastic wrap. 

We got home about 2 hours ago....At 8000 feet elevation, it was still in the 90F degree range.  Today is supposed to be around 115F (way upper 40C). 

I pulled the new sourdough starter out of the refrigerator and will try it out tonight/tomorrow night.

Lacey12

Interesting thing about the toilets wrapped in saran wrap...and I can see that there might be more than one "dying to go" person who forgets about the saran wrap upon return from vacation. So, I think it must be a climate thing since we have never done that in the Northeast, and always have remaining water after nine months of inactivity in a house that ranged from 70 to 50 degrees (where we set the bathroom thermostat). I, being very " sensory", would definitely not enjoy returning to sewer aromas gracing my house after a vacation.



We actually had a nice beach day here today...but it was really hot and muggy for my long walk before heading to the beach. Now we are sitting on the porch listening to thunderstorms dancing around us. Love it! Just ordered veggie pizza and greek salad for dinner. DH would have preferred that we get lobster from the local supermarket sale, but we'll do that another night. Fast and easy is the key tonight. My allergies are so intense that I am taking the path of least resistence for everything...including dinner. I do need to see the allergist when I get home as my eyes are like slits and sooo itchy! And no benedryl for me while on the tamoxifen. Zyrtec seems to be of no great help. Of course being on a porch surrounded by weeping trees is probably not the greatest allergy minimizer.



Amazing all that heat out west! Keep cool, western sisters and brother!

Laurie08

Eric- I could never stand that heat.  I HATE to be hot.

Lacey-  Yuck on the allergies, I hope you find some relief.  Today did turn out beautiful!  We were on the same page, ordered a pizza and had left over salad from the weekend.  I am exhausted.

The weekend ended up being wonderful despite the fact that the weather man said rain all weekend- it did not rain on us and we had mostly sunny skies the whole time.  I even got a bit of a sunburn.  We came back tonight just before dinner time and we are all very tired.  We should all sleep good tonight I think.  We have all had a shower/bath and I put clean sheets on our bed and I am looking forward to sleeping in it!  We had simple food all weekend and extra friends came by Saturday.  One brought an anti pasta salad which was wonderful, another a pesto mushroom salad.  We enjoyed the left overs all day today and still had things to bring home.  I feel very thankful for my friends and family tonight.  It was relaxing, no fighting amongst the boys, the kids running free while the adults laughed and chatted.  Wonderful.

Hugs to everyone especially you Deb.

auntienance

Lacey, have you tried zaditor (ketotifen) for your eyes? It really helps if you use it regularly.

luvmygoats

Or Lacey another suggestion by my optometrist is Alaway allergy eye drops. They're OTC and really help when my allergies act up. Sounds very similar to Nancy's Zaditor.

Laurie - sounds like a wonderful weekend.

We had 5 cheese tortellini that dairy case was clearing out. Pretty good but I would not have paid retail price for them. DH likes plain old spaghetti just fine but he liked these too. Still have not made the bean flatbreads. Maybe one day for lunch with DH off for 2 days. Might carmelize some onions to go on them. The recipe calls for roasted salted almonds. Don't know about that. Might make some with/some without.

Carole - I too find grapes in soup different. Hummm???

Lacey12

Thanks Nance. My eye doc suggested that a couple of months ago when I had my yearly eye check and the eye allergies were starting. I used it for about a month daily with not much luck.

So why does Tamox impact me big time and these allergy meds act like sugar stuff!? I am currently hating pharm! I learned from one of my docs that the Tamox and its effect on my estrogen leaves me more prone to allergies....and I think many people in my area of the country have had a lot of allergies this year anyway....so....bad combo. My dermatologist offered me a steroid cream for my eyes, but I thought I could manage with the zaditor, so declined. Silly me! Shades of last year's radiation, I am swabbing my eyes with aqua phor since my eyelids and skin below my eyes are so red and sore.



Laurie, glad you had such a wonderful weekend. Loved that pic of the kids walking through the ferns.

Laurie08

Lacey- It was funny.  DH was bound and determined to take a hike.  Me and DS1 said- uh- no we are staying on the beach.  DS2 was all excited and so were a few of our friends so a few of them left for a hike while a few of us stayed back and enjoyed the lake.  To me it was too hot to go for a hike in the woods!  But they had fun and so did we.  Also, love aquaphore and use it daily!

Lacey12

Thanks too, Luv...sadly, I think I'm prescription bound for this eye allergy problem.



I used the recipe with the green grapes in it was because that was one of the ingredients in the white gazpacho we had at The Farmhouse restaurant last week. It lends a sweetness (and acidity?). Somehow, that appealed to me, and he other recipes seemed like a plain cuke soup.

eric95us

All 19 of the Granite Mtn. Hotshots, part of the Prescott, AZ fire department, died today fighting a wildland fire.  I've worked with them, so they're not just "some names".

debbie6122

I havn't had time to read everyone's post, mainly came here to make sure Eric was OK! I was worried you were there during the terrible loss of the fire fighters. I am so glad you are safe, but very sorry for there loss and for yours. You and there family's are in my prayers. (((((hugs))))

'

chabba

Eric, condolances and prayers for you and all who loved them.

bobogirl

Eric, so sorry for the loss of your friends!  Thought of you when I read this in the paper today -- page one, above the fold, even though we are in FL.

luvmygoats

Eric - I saw that on the Yahoo headlines when I just signed on. My heart goes out to you and to the citizens of Arizona. May God hold those firefighters and their families close and give them comfort. I can't imagine their loss and what it means to you Eric.

Praying that the west will get a break soon. Where's the monsoon season?

Have 2 sets of friends going to outside of Black Hawk CO today. Praying fires are no where near there. On set goes to same place every year so assume they have been in touch with condos.

Lacey12

Oh Eric, I'm so sorry for your loss......((((((HUGS)))))). Such a terrible tragedy for so many families.

auntienance

Such a horrible tragedy. I'm so sorry Eric.

auntienance

Lacey, I sent you a pm.

Laurie08

Eric- So sorry for your loss.  How horribly sad.

PeggySull

Chana, thanks so much! I'm really looking forward to doing this!



Peggy

Laurie08

Today was DS1's special day alone with me.  He had some grand ideas I hade to tame.  Toy store, lunch at a restaurant, ice cream etc etc.  So we agreed to the toy store and a 15 dollar limit, eat lunch at home and I bought him an ice cream treat at the store.  We spent the day playing with his new monster truck toy, playing video games together.  I also taught him how to play go fish and War.  It was really a nice day and I enjoyed just hanging out with him and giving him all of my attention.

Dinner tonight was his choice, home made spaghetti sauce with ziti pasta and garlic bread.  It came out great and everyone ate.  Very simple at the end to a great day.

Lacey12

Laurie, sounds like a "money in the 'relational' bank" kind of day.. So happy for you that it went so well. It's great that you have nice in-laws to support such lovely exeriences.



I think we will have more rain here tomorrow.....nothing like the wild weather that passed thru MA this afternoon. We seem to be a country in weather crisis.

susan_02143

Eric, I thought of you immediately as the news of the hotshot deaths was announced. How hard this must be for the families and friends of these 19 people. Though I am glad that being a hotshot isn't one of your specialties, that doesn't change how tragic this all seems.

Around here, food has happened. Day in. Day out. Much of it has been good. Just haven't been able to rebound mentally from the sadness of cleaning out my MIL's house. I suspect that the lack of thyroid is playing into this flatness, but the doctors don't really listen much. Who knows? Sorry not to have felt up to posting. You have all been such a great support group it isn't fair for me to simply disappear like that.

I am off to Wilson Farms here in a bit. We need more local vegetables. We missed the horrid storms yesterday. They were just that much West of us.

*susan*

carberry

What a terrible event on the loss of all those firemen. So sorry that you have to go through this Eric. Our "true" heroes.

If we get any more rain we will be able to drive the boat right up to our front door! Lots of flooding here in NY, people being evacuated from their homes.  I have have to let water out of the pool to keep it from overflowing.

No grand meals here, got home at 10pm last night and had a chicken sandwich. praying for good weather for the weekend so we can do some good bbqing.

Susan  Sorry you are feeling so "blue" The doctor gave me a low dose of effexor to help with my hotflashes and the bonus is, it gives me a more stable mood. Sometimes life events just set me off into a downward spiral, that never happened pre ca.

auntienance

Yesterday I made onion rolls to be used as buns for some pulled pork on the 4th. I had to start early because we're going to the thoroughbred races today with friends then spending the night at a local casino. Tomorrow is a visit to The Butterfly House. Since we're having friends over for the 4th, I had to get a jump on things. The rest of the menu will be new potato and green bean salad (from the garden, yay!), fruit salad, roasted corn on the cob and blackberry pie with vanilla bean ice cream. Sounds pretty all American, doesn't it?



The next few meals will be out. Tonight will probably be one of my favorite Italian places, Charlie Gitto's. Beyond that, who knows? I'm off to the races!

auntienance

Susan! I missed your post. It's good to hear from you. I'm sorry you're so blue. I found it oddly comforting to go through my moms things. She was a pack rat and it made me laugh more than a few times at some of the stuff she kept, such as numerous odd earrings without mates and silly Christmas decorations. It definitely made me miss her though. I hope you feel better soon and I'm glad you checked in. Make those docs listen to you!

Lacey12

It is good to hear from you, Susan, but sorry about it taking longer than you'd hope to rebound. You did have several consecutive events and significant losses without a break, so that and the thyroid related "flatness" you mention, may require it taking some time to rebound from. (pardon the crappy construction there!) I hope you are able to do some good things for yourself to help the process along....



I'm relieved to hear that the wildest of storms missed you.



No need to post food updates here....just good to hear from you!